Love Jones

Cleopatra Jones is a great blaxploitation film from 1973 that does not star Pam Grier. Sorry. The globe-trotting, drug-crime-fighting, presidential-authorization-carrying Cleo Jones is played by Tamara Dobson. She is in Turkey, bombing the poppy fields when she finds out that the fuzz have been hassling the drug rehab house she sponsors in LA. She rushes right back to get to the bottom of it, driving around in a custom Corvette, wearing slinky outfits, and high-kicking anyone who gets in her way.

Along with the crooked cops, we have pimp/dealer Doodlebug, played with goofy gusto by Antonio Fargas (TV's Huggy Bear). But the lady behind it all, the Big Mommy, is Shelley Winters, a shrieking lesbian crime boss. She also seems to be having a great time in this.

This movie isn't very street, more comic book in style. The production values are great - the hair, the fashions, the rides. The big car chase is Fords v. Chevy and they race through the LA River with water in it. The kung fu is possibly not the best, but Tamara can kick over her head, and she's a tall woman. I've got to rate this as a superior blaxploitation.

But Dobson isn't Pam Grier. She doesn't have those eyes, those lips, those cheekbones. So I'll leave it up to you, readers: Friday Foster or Cleopatra Jones?